Posts from the ‘eJournal of Public Affairs’ Category

We’re thrilled to unveil the latest issue of the eJournal of Public Affairs, a collaboration between Missouri State University and AASCU’s American Democracy Project. This issue features content from the 2017 Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement meeting in Baltimore, Md. organized by ADP, TDC, and NASPA’s LEAD Initiative.

By Adrienne McNally, New York Institute of Technology
International students are often overlooked in the typical civic engagement activities of colleges and universities. However, including international students in such…

By Stephanie Malinenko, Justine Tutuska, and Lynn Matthews, Daemen College
Written reflection is a tool commonly used by faculty to assess student learning in service-learning courses, which are frequently…

By Derek W. M. Barker, Kettering Foundation
You’re More Powerful Than You Think: A Citizen’s Guide to Making Change Happen. By Eric Liu. New York: Public Affairs. 2017. ISBN: 9781610397070. 256 pages.…Read more

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ADP in the News is a compilation of brief updates about American Democracy Project (ADP) activities at participating colleges and universities and is a semi-regular news feature on our blog. Below you will find the latest edition of this series.

If you have an ADP event you’d like posted in this format, please email adp@aascu.org.

Illinois State University (ISU) Students in Washington, D.C.As part of the 2017 Civic Engagement Trip, nine students from Illinois State University (ISU) got to visit Washington D.C. and experience the government of the United States in action. ISU’s American Democracy Project (ADP) supports the annual trip and ADP’s national manager, Jen Domagal-Goldman, had the chance to speak to the students about the organization. Students also got to meet various politicians, hear from ISU alumni, network with graduate students and D.C. lobbyists and, of course, take tours of the national monuments. Find more information about their trip and some pictures here.

New Central Michigan University InitiativeAs part of its overall community engagement strategy, Central Michigan University recently launched the Office of Business Engagement, a new initiative to interact with and aid the CMU community with business initiation and growth. Through the Office of Business Engagement individuals have the opportunity to get connected with CMU’s network of prepared and committed students, find research partners, use one of CMU’s educational or professional development services, get help nourishing a new business, or invest with CMU. Find out more about CMU’s new Office of Business Engagement here.

Rutgers-Newark Professor on “Urban Universities” and Civic ResponsibilitySteven Diner, a professor and former chancellor at Rutgers University, Newark, interviewed with Tim Goral at the University Business Magazine to talk about civic responsibility in higher education. Diner discussed the history of the term “urban universities”- once used derogatorily to refer to low-income, city-based institutions – and explained how institutions like these are now epicenters for education for civic responsibility. Diner’s new book, Universities and Their Cities: Urban Education in America (2017, Johns Hopkins University Press), addresses the ways in which urban universities are at the forefront of the movement to teach students civic engagement. Read the full interview here and purchase Steven Diner’s book here.

An Introduction to Dialogue and Deliberation | the eJournal of Public AffairsThe eJournal of Public Affairs, a partnership between the American Democracy Project and Missouri State University, recently published a piece by John J. Theis and Jose Vela from the Lone Star College-Kingwood in Kingwood, Texas. Theis and Vela collaborated on a written and visual introduction to the concept of dialogue and deliberation in order to highlight the work that Lone Star College’s Center for Civic Engagement has been doing to put dialogue and deliberation into action amongst its students. Read more about dialogue and deliberation and the Center for Civic Engagement’s work and watch Jose Vela’s engaging video here.

Civic leadership centers inherently on creating conditions for groups of people to make progress on social, political, economic, and moral issues in ways that help them to more fully realize the requirements of justice. Justice, as it relates to leadership activity, “is the fair, equitable and impartial distribution of resources, opportunities and benefits of society to all of its members, regardless of position, place or other exclusionary criteria deemed unfair” (Johnson, 2008, p. 303). To read the full article, visit Why Civic Leadership for Social Justice?

The author argues that social justice is a topic that few in higher education oppose, but there are structural challenges for university faculty members and academic professionals engaging social justice issues. By exploring four dimensions of the university—institutional mission, academic scholarship, professional identity, and pedagogical approaches—the author argues for a rethinking of how we approach these dimensions of our work. Finally, the author identifies other fields of scholarship and practice that can help to address our must pressing public problems in which social justice issues at the center. To read the full article, visit The Politics of Knowledge: Challenges and Opportunities for Social Justice Work in Higher Education Institutions.

The case in this study, an initiative called, “Not Just A Year of Social Justice Education” (NJAY), was a practice in distributed and transformative leadership, community engagement, and informal social justice education. Included are reflections about the role of the university in developing socially just citizens, the process of collaboration community engagement for social justice, and the overt and covert role of leadership that must be both transformative and pragmatic. To read the full article, visit “Not Just a Year of Social Justice Education”: A university/community collaboration to enhance and support social justice.

Exploration of social justice issues need to be integrated into a person’s life. Development in the understanding of social justice cannot be done in one course or conversation on a college campus. This article describes how one institution of higher education in the United States focused on the creation and implementation of a Social Justice Living Learning Community. To read the full article, visit So Just Make a Difference: A Unique Approach to Leadership and Social Justice Education.

Political quiescence among low-income Americans is well documented but its causes are not well understood. This study explored the hypothesis that a self-stigmatized identity in low-income individuals is associated with a reluctance to participate in democratic activity. We engaged in participant/observation at nine mealtimes to analyze the discourse of guests of our local community “soup kitchen” and also administered a survey to investigate their perceptions of the poor, their beliefs about causes of poverty, and their knowledge of the demographics of recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. To read the full article, visit Self-Stigmatizing Identity and Democratic Participation Among Low-Income Individuals.

All those who wish to embark on this journey or are already doing engaged work should be compelled to read Publicly Engaged Scholars: Next Generation Engagement and the Future of Higher Education. Readers will feel the urgent call to renew the civic purposes of higher education to bring about social change, strengthen democracy, and develop engaged citizens. For full book review, visit Imploring the Next Generation of Scholars.

“How do we create real change? What have successful organizers done that works, and what doesn’t work? How can anyone get involved and make a difference?” In When We Fight, We Win!: Twenty-First Century Social Movements and the Activists That Are Transforming Our World, co-author Greg Jobin-Leeds poses these powerful questions to frame an exploration of 21st-century social movements and to spotlight the often unsung individuals who work to effect change. By interviewing activists, leaders, organizers, and academics, Jobin-Leeds and AgitArte—an activist artist collective—situate contemporary movements by artistically representing and sharing stories tied to the history of struggle, building on ideas and visions of previous generations, and writing candidly of victories, failures, and dreams. The book serves simultaneously as a guide offering tips to current or aspiring activists, an informative and inclusive history of grassroots movements, and a vivid depiction of individual stories and experiences centering on transformative organizing. For full book review, visit When We Fight, We Win!

Deliberative dialogues build on the theory that democracy requires citizens to engage in ongoing deliberation on public matters. The program builds on the idea that it is our communities and discourse that are the foundations for civic renewal. To read the full article, visit Deliberation: An Introduction.

Darrell Hamlin, associate professor of criminal justice at Fort Hays State University, explores the relationship between police and demonstrators to raise deeper questions about democratic life in an atmosphere of provocative change in the United States and around the globe. Hamlin considers several trends: growing political unrest; governments that are more confrontational with interest groups and political factions; and increasingly aggressive and militarized policing tactics deployed to handle agitated crowds. Trained in democratic theory and civic engagement, but serving criminal justice students in the university classroom, Hamlin brings both sides of the story—the crowds and the cops—into this TEDx Talk delivered in April of 2015. In this challenging civic moment, democracy faces two choices, Hamlin suggests: “We can invest in technology to disperse crowds, or we can invest in something that speaks to whatever is causing the crowds to gather.” To read the full article, visit Cops and Crowds.

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ADP, TDC and NASPA’s Lead Initiative are thrilled to announce that we are partnering with the eJournal of Public Affairs on a special issue focused on the scholarship presented at our upcoming 2017 Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement (CLDE) meeting!

The eJournal of Public Affairs is a peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary, open-access journal published by Missouri State University and affiliated with the American Democracy Project. ADP, TDC and NASPA are delighted to partner with the eJournal on this special CLDE issue.

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Guest Editors:Carolyn Colvin, Associate Professor of Language, Literacy, and Culture, University of Iowa; and Keri Franklin, Professor of English, Missouri State University

In 1990, Ernest Boyer called for a reconsideration of scholarship and invited faculty to re-envision 21st Century universities so that the Academy might become a “more vigorous partner in the search for answers to our most pressing social, civic, economic, and moral problems” and “reaffirm its historic commitment to. . . the scholarship of engagement.”

Literacy scholars embrace community engagement as a way to become involved in critical contemporary conversations. Yet, researchers should not be seduced by romantic, well-intentioned motives of community work and fail to acknowledge who is being served by their research. We invite submissions for a special issue on the challenges and opportunities of public engagement and literacy research.

For our purposes, we refer to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching definition of community engagement as “the collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity” (Driscoll, 2008, p. 39).

Submission topics may include, but are not limited to:

Literature reviews framing the intersection between public and literacy scholarship

Descriptions and assessments of exemplary or innovative projects grounded in public and literacy scholarship

Collaborations among literacy scholars, universities, funding agencies, and community advocates

Leveraging resources and the challenge of building and sustaining community partnerships

Features Section: We seek examples of voices from students, teachers, and community members who participate in literacy initiatives. They may be in the form of traditional essays, photographic essays, multimedia, or video productions.

The American Democracy Project (ADP) is a multi-campus initiative focused on public higher education’s role in preparing the next generation of informed, engaged citizens for our democracy. The project began in 2003 as an initiative of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), in partnership with The New York Times.

The goal of the American Democracy Project is to produce graduates who are committed to being knowledgeable, involved citizens in their communities. Since its inception, ADP has hosted 13 national and 18 regional meetings, a national assessment project, and hundreds of campus initiatives including voter education and registration, curriculum revision projects, campus audits, special days of action and reflection, speaker series and many recognition and award programs.